California Drought: Water crisis may force citizens to drink their own sewage

With the lingering Californian drought becoming worse, citizens of the western American state are facing the prospect of eating their own faeces. The impact of the drought has been so hard that Californians are now appealing for treating sewage into drinking water.

Although the idea might seem gross, many scientists believe it is a safe and a more efficient way of treating the moderately treated sewage that is currently being flushed into the Pacific Ocean.

“That water is discharged into the ocean and lost forever. Yet it’s probably the single largest source of water supply for California over the next quarter-century”, Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, told the LA Times.

According to several experts, carrying out proper and thorough filtration to remove bacteria can reduce the threat that treated sewage poses to health and can even make it cleaner than bottled water.

Treated sewage is not used for drinking purposes due to major opposition from the public, although it is already employed for ‘non-potable’ purposes, such as irrigating golf courses.

However, rhe immensity of the drought might change the opinion of people regarding the usage of treated sewage.

Professor George Tchobanoglous, a water treatment expert from UC Davis in California, pointed to 20 wastewater plants currently discharging into the Colorado River that could be harnessed.